{"product_id":"9783110277807","title":"The English it-Cleft: A Constructional Account and a Diachronic Investigation","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book examines the structure and function of the English it-cleft configuration from within the framework of construction grammar. It defends a straightforward extraposition-from-NP analysis (on which the cleft clause is a restrictive relative, modifying the initial it) and claims that all types of it-cleft involve nominal predication. Support for this analysis comes from three main areas: (a) the central role of definiteness in the creation of specificational meaning, (b) the existence and makeup of predicational (and proverbial) it-clefts, and (c) the early, historical it-cleft data. In addition, the book contains a sizeable diachronic component, drawing data from the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English and from the International Corpus of English - Great Britain. This investigation informs and advances what is an otherwise simple account of the English it-cleft, explaining how and why the configuration has developed an assortment of peculiar, construction-specific properties over time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"De Gruyter","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47058021679344,"sku":"9783110277807","price":168.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9783110277807_p0.jpg?v=1763716845","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9783110277807","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}